Clancy: A night at the printers

But nothing is that dark. Pew’s research found half of all people surveyed read a local newspaper. Joseph Calandra, vice president of operations at Atlantic Color, is an optimist. Calandra, who oversees printing for the Southampton Press and Times-Review groups plus the East Hampton Star, several other newspapers and many special publications, said, “I was worried in ’08 when the recession started and I saw the Internet taking a toll on publishing. But then I see Warren Buffett buying his hometown newspaper and investing in other newspapers. He’s seeing something other people aren’t, and he’s got a very good track record.”

The printers working in the press room weren’t hanging funeral wreaths. They were too busy, working with efficiency, skill and silent pride, putting the deafening machine through its paces. The team didn’t speak, but made only slight gestures and had a kind of telepathy about what needed to be done. The machine, though computerized in some processes, has to be tended by human hands, knowledge and experience.

Valek dialed the press up to run at 26,700 papers an hour. Then he throttled it back as one printer near the end of the long belt was bent over timing the paper flow. He cut – or “spliced” – the roll perfectly. Rupprecht looked back to Valek at the central console and drew a finger across his throat. The press, like a thoroughbred, slowed to a trot.

One comment

For those of us who remember when there were at least six daily newspapers in New York City and have to face the fact that the only daily on Long Island has virtually no autonomy, the passing away of print media is sad indeed. More troubling still is the dissolution of language standards and the question of how – and if -history will be recorded. I think there will always be people who are driven to report news but how they will do it remains to be seen.